Can you actually influence what AI learns about your brand during training? Is this even possible?

Good questions. Let me give you the insider perspective.

How AI training actually works:

1. Data collection: AI companies scrape billions of web pages
2. Data filtering: They filter for quality, remove spam/duplicates
3. Training: Models learn patterns from this filtered data
4. Result: AI “knows” things it encountered repeatedly across sources

Does your content make it into training?

If your website:

• Is publicly accessible
• Has reasonable domain authority
• Isn’t blocked in robots.txt
• Contains unique, quality content

Then yes, it’s likely in training datasets.

Is your signal strong enough?

Here’s the key insight: AI learns through repetition and corroboration.

If your brand is mentioned once on one page = weak signal If your brand is mentioned consistently across 100+ sources saying the same things = strong signal

How to influence training:

The strategy: Get consistent messaging across multiple high-authority sources.

The practical approach to training influence:

The core principle: Consistent messaging across authoritative sources.

What this means:

1. Define your key brand facts

   • What you do (specific)
   • Who you serve
   • Key differentiators
   • Notable achievements

2. Repeat these consistently

   • On your website
   • In press releases
   • In contributed articles
   • In interviews and podcasts
   • On Wikipedia (if notable)

3. Get others to repeat them

   • Press coverage
   • Industry mentions
   • Partner testimonials
   • Review sites

Example:

If you want AI to know you’re “the leading platform for X”:

• Say this on your About page
• Say this in press releases
• Get press to say this
• Have industry sites mention this
• Include this in Wikipedia (if verifiable)

When AI sees the same characterization across 50+ sources, it becomes confident in that description.

This is helpful. So training influence is about:

1. Consistent messaging
2. Across multiple authoritative sources
3. Over time

Question: How do I know if AI has “learned” what I want it to learn about our brand?

Testing what AI “knows” about your brand:

Test queries (try without web search enabled):

1. “What is [Company Name]?”
2. “Tell me about [Company Name]”
3. “What does [Company Name] do?”
4. “Who founded [Company Name]?”
5. “What are [Company Name]’s main products?”
6. “How is [Company Name] different from competitors?”

What to look for:

• Accuracy: Is the information correct?
• Completeness: Does it know key facts?
• Recency: Is it current or outdated?
• Positioning: How does it describe you?
• Confidence: Does it qualify with “I think” or state confidently?

Document and track:

Run these tests quarterly. Document responses. Look for:

• Changes after major content/PR initiatives
• Improvements in accuracy or completeness
• Changes in how you’re positioned

Warning signs:

• Outdated information
• Incorrect facts
• Competitor-favoring positioning
• “I don’t have much information about…”

Wikipedia deserves special attention for training influence.

Why Wikipedia matters:

• AI training heavily weights Wikipedia
• It’s treated as authoritative
• It influences how AI characterizes entities
• ChatGPT especially relies on Wikipedia

If you have a Wikipedia page:

• Keep it accurate and current
• Ensure key facts are correct
• Add citations for notable achievements
• Follow Wikipedia guidelines (no self-promotion)

If you don’t have a Wikipedia page:

• Build notability through press coverage
• Get mentioned on existing relevant Wikipedia pages
• Consider if you meet notability guidelines
• Don’t try to create one without genuine notability (it’ll be deleted)

The Wikipedia echo:

What’s on Wikipedia often shapes how AI describes entities across the board. It’s worth investment in getting this right.

Got it. So my action items:

Define (This Month):

1. Key brand facts and messaging
2. How we want AI to describe us
3. Current gaps between desire and reality

Create consistent content (Ongoing):

1. Ensure website clearly states key facts
2. Include consistent messaging in all PR
3. Create contributed content with same messaging
4. Update any outdated information

Amplify through third parties (Ongoing):

1. Press coverage with correct messaging
2. Industry publication mentions
3. Wikipedia presence (if appropriate)
4. Review site profiles

Monitor (Quarterly):

1. Test what AI “knows” about us
2. Document changes
3. Adjust strategy based on gaps

Question: How long until these efforts show up in AI responses?

Timeline reality for training influence:

Retrieval-based AI (Perplexity, ChatGPT with search):

• New content: Days to weeks
• Updated information: Days to weeks
• This is where you see faster impact

Training-based knowledge:

• Major AI models trained periodically (months between updates)
• Your content needs to be in training data
• Then model needs to be retrained
• Then deployed

Realistic timeline:

• For retrieval: 2-4 weeks
• For training knowledge: 6-12+ months

The good news:

Most user interactions now involve retrieval (search-enhanced AI). So your content optimization shows impact faster.

Training influence is the long game - it shapes the baseline, but retrieval is where you see quick wins.

Focus on retrieval optimization now. Think of training influence as compounding investment that pays off over years.

Big picture perspective:

Training influence = Brand building Retrieval optimization = Content marketing

You’re essentially building brand awareness and perception at the AI level.

The same things that build strong brand perception with humans - consistent messaging, authoritative coverage, positive sentiment - also build strong AI perception.

If you’re already doing good brand marketing, you’re doing much of what’s needed for training influence. The key is ensuring:

1. Messaging is consistent
2. It appears across diverse sources
3. It’s accessible to AI crawlers
4. It’s repeated enough to be learned

This isn’t a separate discipline. It’s extending your brand strategy to include AI as an audience.